domenica 7 aprile 2013

Microsoft’s Market Dominance Is Coming to an End, Say Leading Analysts

Microsoft’s long-held dominance over the computing sector is coming to an end, say market experts Gartner.

The industry analysts expect Microsoft’s roost to shrink by over 7% this year alone. And, in further research they’ve conducted, go as far as as to predict the Windows’ makers share slipping as little as 14% by 2017.

But if Microsoft’s grasp is loosening, what’s taking up its slack? Simple: the meteoric march of mobile devices.

As worldwide PC shipments continue to fall – a market in which, back
in 2005, commanded 97% of – sales of tablets and smartphones continues
to rise.

And, despite the spin, Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Windows RT OS
continue to flounder, accounting for a very small percentage of sales
over all.

The future, as we’re seeing with Canonical’s investment in Ubuntu
Touch, is mobile. Fellow industry gurus IDC said,at the tail end of
last year that “Consumers
and business buyers are now starting to see smartphones, tablets and
PCs as a single continuum of connected devices separated primarily by
screen size.”

For Microsoft the future isn’t looking great. Sales of their new
operating system continue to eek rather than sprint forward, and with
worldwide tablet sales are expected to grow by almost 70% in 2013 – but
more companies ruling out shipping Windows 8 RT on them – it seems their
relevancy will continue to be questioned for some time to come.

Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi sums up
their predicament quite well: “Consumers have options and consumers are
choosing. Microsoft cannot take that for granted that they’ll be the one
to be chosen.”

Like most towering giants it seems that they haven’t been brought down by an outside inasmuch as their own complacency.